Final Payments Under Coronavirus Food Assistance Program Expected by Late August

Bill Northey, Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation for the USDA, has told media that farmers will receive the remaining 20% of what they were owed under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). Despite previous concerns regarding whether farmers would even receive the funds, Northey is expecting farmers to receive those payments by the end of August. 

"We'd like to be able to do it earlier than that," Northey said. "If we can look and see that we're going to have plenty of dollars yet, of course we haven't even announced the third group of commodities yet and we're still partway through signup."

The next round of payments under CFAP is designed to compensate farmers for losses occurring since mid-April. The USDA also has an addition $14 billion available that could be used for a new COVID-19 aid package, but this would have to be approved by Congress.

The last day to sign up for CFAP is August 28th.